World Cup Stadia 2010: The Moses Mabhida Stadium

This is the second in our series of posts on the new stadium under construction in South Africa for World Cup 2010. See our previous post on Green Point Stadium.

South Africa’s Wembley Stadium? With its soaring arches, Durban’s Moses Mabhida Stadium, currently under construction, certainly has a passing resemblance to London’s white elephant. The arch in Durban is slated to be a little bit special, though: the arch also serves as a pedestrian walkway, so spectators will be able to traverse the stadium 100 metres above the pitch by foot or go up there via a cable car lift. The arch will apparently even offer bungee jumping (hopefully not during World Cup matches).

Moses Mabhida Stadium rendering

The new venue is being constructed on the site of the Kings Park Soccer Stadium, and will play host to one of the semi-finals in the World Cup.

The stadium is multi-purpose, built for rugby and — crucially — athletics, as Durban eyes a 2020 Olympic bid. Unfortunately, this means a running track will run around the pitch at the World Cup. The three-tier 70,000 capacity is expandable to 85,000 with temporary seating, to meet Olympic criteria.

Moses Mabhida Stadium – Inside

The stadium is located in what will be one of the most remarkable sports settings in the world, with surrounding facilities allowing the area to host up to 40 sports, and a walkway running to it from the city’s centre. Particularly attractive is the stadium’s direct walkway to the beach, just 200m away.

Moses Mabhida Stadium – Beach walkway rendering

The initial plan was to name the stadium King Senzangakhona Stadium, but that was changed in 2007 in a political controversy, when the powers-that-be decided instead to honour Moses Mabhida, an ANC activist and leader of the Communist Party in the time of Apartheid.

Here is the stadium as it stood under construction last week; progress has been swift (compared to Wembley!).

Moses Mabhida – Shadows. Photo courtesy Chris Bloom on Flickr.

The shadows cast on the field here suggest some concern for 2010. With the shadows and the running track, the stadium — despite its stunning exterior and location — may attract some complaints during the World Cup, but the stunning arch ensures that Moses Mabhida Stadium will be an iconic venue in 2010 and perhaps more importantly for the city, also for the Olympics in 2020.

Hoping to go to Durban or Cape Town for a week. These images and descriptions make this a highly appealing destination though.

Interestingly enough, just had word from someone who was in SA for the Confederations Cup though not in Durban. He said that in the city centre remits in J-Burg and Bloemfontain he felt safe and calm despite hookers and pimps drifting around outside hotels in numbers. In a country with 1 in 3 HIV this is distressing especially with dimwitted football fans milling around. However, as soon as he got in a car and drove anywhere he felt anxious and scared. The reasons were such:

Another bit of info was from a senior ‘England Fans’ representative who was in Johannesburg. He shall be nameless. He visited venues, met organisers and checked out inner city areas. His overall assumption was it could be a ‘nightmare’ for fans especially as many go without tickets. He also spoke of how stewarding at the Confederations Cup was a disaster. A vast amount of stewards were being paid a mizerly poor sum in wages per hour and salary per game by stewarding chiefs.

A number of strikes were held by stewards minutes before games in an effort to get better wages. These involved walking out and and people being sacked on the spot and replaced 1 hour before games by less experienced and trained staff. There are stadium infrastructural issues outwith the grounds and prominant in this is access from city centres areas and the stewarding issue were exploitation of poor workers is commonplace. The news of the Durban ground would suggest city centre access may not be a problem.

Every tournament were new stadia has been created will leave a trail of contruction work completed a few days previous (In Portugal Euro 2004 some of the areas around the Aviero and Liera stadia included poor bus transfers to the city, and newly laid roads and footpath areas. ) This was not too much of a problem in a country like Portugal where you can wonder back aimlessly enjoying the sun along dusty footpaths following others. But late at night in South Africa it will be cold, dark and bleak and scary.

I think that stadia looks great; is located in very close proximity to the city centre and beach areas. It all sounds great. But whether the stadia in other venues will prove to be as attractive and potentially safe as this one seems then we will have have to wait and see.

July 6, 2009 at 3:43 pmJenny

Wow!! That is a huge stadium! I read today in the news that the building of the stadium is at risk because the workers are on strike. Hope they reach an agreement soon! It would be a pity to have the World Cup compromised because of this.

July 7, 2009 at 4:05 amfeminin

The stadium is going to be just spectacular! I heard about the strike myself, it would be a pity if the could not finish the work in time for the WC.

July 7, 2009 at 5:37 pmElliott

Keep the fantastic work Mr. Dunmore. I look forward to the next post in the series!

July 9, 2009 at 12:29 pmTimmy

wow, pretty freaking amazing. they should make the roof retractable to avoid shadows, looks a little late for that though, i guess.

I’ve taken many pics of the stadium since construction began and as inside a month ago – it is truly awesome. I can assure you there will be no building rubble by the time the World cup begins – Durban will be more than ready – and I believe our Fan Parks in this city are going to be awesome – they are on the beachfront.

I doubt the shadows will be a problem – the designers are to samrt to have “forgotten” about something so important, and no seat is further than 140m from the pitch. (The international norm is a maximum of 190m), so the athletic track won’t matter.

There is an amazing feeling of scape in the stadium – I believe that even when it is jam-packed, it will still feel the same – the seats are great and the facilities for people with disabilities are unbelievable.

So don’t buy into the rumours of doom and gloom- come to South Africa – if you don’t have ticket,s come and party in our fan parks and see the country.

May 17, 2010 at 8:19 amBashnegatives

Damon have you ever been to Africa or even South Africa. No, is my guess. Then honestly how can you let others judge for you how the place is? You will realise they are those that have been from overseas and said the country is safe enough and fans from abroad will have a good time. Then they are those like your Senior Citizen whose mission seems to have been to find faults.

Even the most ideal of world cup hosts will have it’s fair share of organisational hitches. As for bad nieghbourhoods, every City on earth has them. So it’s a question of finding yourself in the right places.

You can keep mourning about South Africa not being ready and the country is unsafe `yawn’ Blah blah blah. But the fact is the world Cup is in 26 days time and guess what it will be in SA. So if you seriously support your team and have resources to travel, intiating your travel plans other than seating and crying should be the norm.